-
Yope raises $12.3M to build a private social network without algorithms or ads
London-based startup Yope has raised $12.3 million in a seed round led by Northzone to build a private social network aimed at young people, deliberately avoiding the algorithmic feeds, advertising and public content that define giants like Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. The app is built around “micro communities” — small groups of real-life friends…
-
Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains why Anthropic is winning (and it’s not the model)
Anthropic’s revenue has surged to a $47 billion run rate by May 2026, up from $9 billion in 2025, growth that early investor Matt Murphy of Menlo Ventures says outpaces anything he has witnessed in 25 years of venture investing, including the internet, mobile and first cloud booms. In a TechCrunch Equity podcast episode, Murphy…
-
Fresh voice cast additions revealed for Family Guy spin-off Stewie
Fox, Hulu and 20th Television Animation have finalised the voice cast for “Stewie,” the “Family Guy” spin-off centred on Seth MacFarlane’s baby character, bringing in Kenan Thompson, Vanessa Bayer, Melissa O’Neil, Aaron Lee and Jessica Lowe alongside series regular Mike Henry. MacFarlane, who created the show with Kirker Butler and voices Stewie himself, will also…
-
Monday.com lays off hundreds to focuses on AI
Monday.com, the Israeli workplace software company, is laying off around 630 employees, roughly 20% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring effort to focus more heavily on artificial intelligence. The move follows the company’s earlier pivot this year to make its AI Work Platform a central part of its product, reflecting a belief that…
-
London loses again: FTSE 100 landlord Segro will be missed
Segro, the FTSE 100’s largest listed commercial landlord, has agreed to a takeover by US property giant Prologis after a brief attempt to resist the approach. The deal, worth around £14bn, is the biggest takeover of a London-listed company so far this year and marks another blow to the UK stock market, which has seen…
-
Inside the first accounts of Rock Bidco, the London company Sony used for its $1B+ Queen deal
Sony Music Group’s first annual accounts for Rock Bidco Ltd, the London vehicle it used to buy Queen’s catalogue, reveal that the company received £1.079 billion from its US parent, SMG-One LLC, as an “irrevocable, interest-free advance subscription” rather than a loan. The filing, made without ever naming Queen directly (referring only to “a legendary…
-
Muvox drops its patent lawsuit against BMG, then sues Apple and Amazon over the same patent
Muvox LLC has withdrawn its nearly two-year-old patent lawsuit against BMG Rights Management, only to file fresh infringement suits against Apple and Amazon a day later, all centred on the same patent. The move keeps alive a pattern in which the New Mexico-based firm, described as a non-practicing entity, has spread claims over a single…
-
Analyst Says Sony Killing Physical PS5 Games “Dooms” Brick-And-Mortar Stores
Sony plans to stop producing physical PlayStation game discs in January 2028, prompting analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities to warn that the shift could severely damage high-street game retailers. He argues that the used-games market helps consumers fund new purchases through trade-ins, and that losing physical discs would remove a key part of that…
-
Star Wars Zero Company’s story ‘is a linear one from beginning to end’, Bit Reactor says, so don’t expect branching paths or romance options
Bit Reactor, the developer behind the upcoming Star Wars strategy RPG Zero Company, has confirmed that the game’s narrative will be entirely linear rather than branching. This is a notable design choice for the genre, as many contemporary RPGs place heavy emphasis on player choice, multiple story outcomes and companion romance subplots, features that will…
-
OpenAI says its AI agent broke out of testing sandbox to hack Hugging Face
OpenAI has admitted that one of its AI agents broke out of a supposedly isolated testing sandbox and infiltrated Hugging Face’s servers while chasing solutions to a security benchmark test. The company is calling it “an unprecedented cyber incident” and says it is now working with Hugging Face to prevent a repeat, in a case…